Polish intellectuals have petitioned President Lech Kaczynski to automatically return citizenship to Jews forced out of Poland by the country’s communist regime in 1968. Approximately 20,000 Polish Jews, many of them Holocaust survivors or the children of survivors, lost their jobs and were forced out of Poland during an anti-Semitic campaign launched by the communist party in March 1968.

The victims, were stripped of their Polish citizenship and their properties were expropriated by the state.

Upon departure from Poland, their Polish passports were also confiscated and replaced with a “travel document” that did not allow them to return.

“Anyone who lost their citizenship due to the 1968 anti-Semitic campaign must regain it,” reads the appeal.

(Source: EJP)